


Dance the Ghost With Me

by mercurialMalcontent



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Horrorstuck, Other, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-05
Updated: 2011-12-05
Packaged: 2017-10-26 23:12:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/288943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercurialMalcontent/pseuds/mercurialMalcontent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a reality a few sidesteps away from the one we know, Eridan travels with Feferi through the Land of Dew and Glass and helps her solve the mysteries of its crystal palaces. However, the one they've just entered is subtly wrong in ways he can't quite put his finger on...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dance the Ghost With Me

**Author's Note:**

> This was born of my personal [minific ninjas](http://mercurialmalcontent.tumblr.com/tagged/minific-ninjas) challenge, with the prompt of Feferi <3 Eridan, dungeon, puzzle. It turned out rather less mini than I'd expected.

The dungeons on Feferi's world were nothing like the dungeons on Eridan's, and in fact he felt strange thinking of them as dungeons at all. Bright and clear and clean were these palaces, fairy tale constructions of light and crystal with rainbows dancing everywhere. They were beautiful, absolutely perfect for her, even in how they shattered like soap bubbles when Feferi unlocked their secrets.

This one, however, made his stomach twist from the moment they set foot inside. Eridan couldn't put his finger on why. It didn't have any more or less imps than usual (not like that would be a problem, Fef had charmed them all into bowing to her as she swept past), and it wasn't any less beautiful than any of the others. Maybe it was that it was a bit strange; many of the crystal surfaces were reflective instead of clear or gleaming rainbows, and after a while even he found it unsettling to see infinite images of himself wherever he turned.

Eridan was about to grumble when Feferi muttered, "I don't know what the glub this place wants from me! I'm sick of looking at myself."

"I'm not sick a lookin at you," Eridan said, but she only frowned and turned away. His breath hitched with a jolt of -- no. No, it was fine. "But that doesn't get this puzzle solved."

"No." Feferi turned around, and around again, face raised to the high ceiling. "Dungeon! What are we supposed to do?"

Her voice echoed with no answer. Eridan shook his head. "That's not how you ask a question of a magic place. It's more like, 'Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?'"

"Oh cod, don't start that again!" Feferi shook her hair out and grimaced. "'Mirror, mirror, on the floor, why is Eridan such a bore?'"

Eridan swallowed against the tightness in his throat. "Mirror, mirror, on the ceilin, when is Fef gonna stop her squealin?"

Feferi whirled upon him, her eyes wide with anger, mouth open to retort. _This isn't like us,_ Eridan thought even as he opened his mouth to shout her down. _We stopped this kind a thing perigees ago, it was gonna be better--_

Her expected scream never came; instead of a torrent of insults, Feferi's snarl fell into an expression of shock. "What the glub is that?!"

"What the glub is what?" Eridan said, whirling to see what she saw, but there was nothing, nothing but their paled faces repeated back at them a thousand times.

"I thought I saw..." Feferi's voice trailed to nothing. "Somefin wrong with the reflection."

Eridan sighed. He said as he turned, "I think this place is gettin to you. There's nothin wrong with--" The words died in his throat as caught a glimpse of something _wrong_ , one of his many mirror images turning with him but its face contorted with rage, raising a glowing wand at-- "FEF!" Eridan yelled, and knocked her to the floor, out of harm's way.

"What the FUCK?!" Feferi shoved him off of her. "There's nothing here! I swear, if this is another one of your fishy games--"

"Fef, no, you gotta understand," Eridan said, reaching toward her, "my reflection--"

"It's just a reflection, Eridan! Calm down!" Feferi scrambled to her feet. "We have to get this thing figured out before I go batfish!"

Eridan watched her scramble away as he heaved himself to his feet. _Why won't she listen? She never fuckin listens, she always thinks its one a my 'games', like my heart is just a game, like I don't do anyfin for her._ He started off after Feferi, but stilled as he caught a glimpse of his reflections -- tight shoulders, angry steps, balled fists. They straighted as he did, unclenched their hands as he did.

"I gotta get out a here," he muttered as he hurried after Feferi.

But now that Eridan had seen that first wrong image, he couldn't stop seeing them everywhere. There he was with his face contorted with rage, then tears, then rage again; when he stopped to let Feferi look around, he watched a reflection cower in terror. Over here, he fired his Crosshairs; over there, he typed furiously away and glowered at what could only be an invisble computer screen.

He was so, so _angry_ , angry in such a way Eridan told himself he hadn't felt for perigees. What made him so angry, this other self of his?

Or maybe the question was why Feferi's other self _wasn't_. Because while he caught glimpses of her angry -- furious, even -- or upset, he caught far more of her laughing and smiling fondly at some invisible someone. That Feferi was having a wonderful time, wherever she was.

In the middle of the next big room, Feferi caught him by the shoulders and spun him around. "By cod, I think I've figured it out!"

"So this is somefin other than a wild octopus chase?" Eridan said, his attention on the reflection of them he could see over her shoulder, where he grabbed at her and got slapped for it.

"Yes, silly! This place is showing us other possibilities, maybe even other timelines!" Feferi spun away from him and twirled. "We have to find the true ones and see where they lead us!"

Eridan watched her reflection dance and dance before turning, laughing, into invisible arms. "Is that so."

"Eridan!" Feferi -- the real Fef -- put her hands on her hips and pouted. "We're about to figure this out, stop being such a drag!"

He didn't answer, didn't protest as she skipped away. He trailed along behind, watching her reflection. What was the name on this Feferi's lips? Who did she laugh with, when she was always running from her Eridan?

Because she always was, always turned away, always looked elsewhere, and what was he doing? He was along, grumbling to the floor or wiping his eyes or cod, _chewing on his cape_ , he'd stopped that a sweep ago at her insistence! Why wasn't she looking at him, talking to him, laughing with him?

They stopped at a branch of three hallways. Feferi bit at her thumbnail as she turned from one to another, then back again. "I think..."

As she turned toward the leftmost branch, he watched her reflection burst into giggles. She batted her eyelashes and pushed someone away, her lips clearly forming a name.

 _Sollux_.

"This one!" Feferi pointed down the leftmost branch. "What do you think?"

Eridan's reflection glowered, hands clenching and teeth bared. "Yeah. That one."

It was the only thing Eridan could see in her reflection, now, her lips forming _that name_ over and over again, laughing or shouting or even fucking _murmuring_ , and with every damn one his reflection grew angrier and angrier.

"This way," piped Feferi, about to dance down the right branch of a split.

Eridan grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back. Her shriek brought a fleeting grin to his lips. "THIS way," Eridan said, pointing as he released her, and made her chase after him.

Feferi followed, for a wonder, even as her reflection stalked off the wrong way. "What's wrong?" she called as she ran to keep up.

"I wanna get this fuckin thing solved, is what," he called back. "I wanna see it through to the end."

Another hallway, another room, another twist, another turn, and soon she was ahead, running away just like her reflection, him always always _always_ fighting to keep up. He couldn't stand it, he wanted it to stop, he wanted her to stop--

Eridan nearly collided with Feferi in a room with no other exits. "This looks like a dead end," she said, shaking her head. "We'll have to take--"

"Fef." Eridan pointed at the wall.

As he pointed, his reflection did, too, his wand shooting a bolt of energy toward something. Feferi's reflection cringed and screamed -- and whirled upon him, her 2x3dent popping out of her sylladex and into her hands as she lunged at him, at _him_ , and he raised his hand again--

"No," Feferi said, "This isn't the right room," but it didn't stop his reflection from firing a bolt toward hers that tore a hole clean through her chest. That beautiful tyrian blood splattered his shoes as she fell back, dead before she hit the ground.

Eridan couldn't tear his eyes away from Feferi's body, from her dead face, eyes wide with a betrayal he suspected she fucking deserved.

"Eridan." Feferi's whisper jostled him back into himself, into his _real_ self, not the one standing furious over her. He raised his eyes to her and his empress turned to him, eyes wide with something very like real fear. "Eridan? Could you... could you reely ever kill me?

Eridan swallowed hard. He had to drop her gaze after a few seconds, and couldn't answer for a few seconds more. "Yeah," he said, his voice hollow. "Yeah, I think I could."

With that, the palace fell to shards around them.


End file.
